It might not have been a hit in its home nation, but Deutschland 83’s success abroad is leading TV executives to bet big on German drama.

Streaming giant Amazon has announced its first German-language series, The Wanted, starring Matthias Schweighöfer as a man whose life is upended after a hacking attack. Netflix is working on an as-yet untitled series in conjunction with the team behind Oscar-winning Stasi drama The Lives of Others, according to Variety. And, never one to be left behind, Sky is creating a 1920s crime drama entitled Babylon Berlin with German public-broadcaster ARD, to be directed by Tom Tykwer of Run Lola Run fame. An adaptation of Volker Kutscher’s bestselling novels about a young detective in Berlin, it is set to start filming in April, with Generation War’s Volker Bruch in the lead and rising star Liv Lisa Fries as his girlfriend, Charlotte.

Deutschland 83: ‘A lot of people were happy in East Germany’

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For years, the German entertainment industry has placed more emphasis on film than television. TV shows have tended towards bland procedural dramas such as the long-running Tatort, or the hugely popular Alarm für Cobra 11 – Die Autobahnpolizei, which follows a pair of highway police officers as they solve crimes – and crash a vast number of cars.

“The trouble with German television is that it’s usually done by committee and compromise,” says Jörg Winger, who created Deutschland 83 with his American wife, Anna. “Too many people have a say, and that doesn’t make outstanding drama.” Now, he says, people seem more willing to take risks, and trust writers. Of course, while that can lead to great series, he continues, there’s a greater chance of a flop.

All the new German shows share this willingness to try something different. The ambitious Babylon Berlin, set in the early days of the Weimar Republic, hopes to become Germany’s answer to Boardwalk Empire and The Wire. It’s a comparison that Kutscher welcomes. “Watching The Sopranos 15 years ago was an epiphany,” he says. “That and The Wire. Seeing my books being adapted for TV in the tradition of those HBO shows is exciting.”

Kutscher says he wrote Babylon Berlin as a way of connecting 1920s Berlin and American gangsters – two 20th-century worlds that have always fascinated him. Sam Mendes’ Road to Perdition and Fritz Lang’s M were the triggers for a story that sees an ordinary cop arrive in the big city and discover nightlife and drugs, gangsters and Russian exiles.

“In recent years, German drama has definitely got better,” he says. “It helps that Berlin in particular is a city full of history and stories.” Winger agrees that Berlin holds a particular fascination for foreign viewers, even if he’s unsure whether Deutschland 83 fans noticed the show wasn’t actually set in the city. He also puts the growing interest down to the fragmented nature of TV audiences. “In 1983, we couldn’t have sold this show,” he says. “But now the growing number of boutique channels around the world means that they are prepared to take a risk and buy shows that might appeal to more specialised audiences.”

It helps, too, that our viewing habits have changed. “Younger audiences don’t mind subtitles,” says Winger. “They’ll watch something in Swedish or Hebrew or German because they see language as the soundtrack to the show and not an annoyance. A foreign-language show is immersive. It puts you deeper into that world.”

Deutschland 83 is available on DVD (£17.99). Babylon Berlin by Volker Kutscher is published by Sandstone Press on 19 May, £8.99.